LEWISTON — Home of both the renowned Bates Dance Festival and a well-regarded academic-year dance program, Bates College this fall will begin to offer Maine's first major focused solely on dance.

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Phyllis Graber Jensen photo

Carol Dilley, current director and associate professor of Bates dance, and Jill Spiewak Eng perform in 2006.

It's the college's first new major since 1997, when Chinese, Japanese and neuroscience were added. The school added a secondary concentration in dance in 1998, and has offered a minor since 2007.

The Bates program is known for popular performances by the Bates Modern Dance Company and guests, frequent collaborations with community dance groups and a strong roster of visiting choreographers.

One of the requirements for a dance major will be that students attend at least one three-week professional education program at the Bates Dance Festival, an acclaimed summer series that draws top professional dance makers from around the world.

"The major will strengthen the connection between the festival and dance program and, hopefully, provide new opportunities to further develop mutually beneficial activities," said festival director Laura Faure. "We hope many current doors will open more widely -- for example, our recent history of bringing acclaimed dance artists to work with students and faculty year-round and across the whole curriculum."

Dance at Bates dates back to the 1930s, but the current program took shape under retired director Marcy Plavin, who came to Bates in 1965. Plavin's legacy includes the creation of the Modern Dance Company, the 29-year-old dance festival, visiting programs in local schools and generations of devoted alumni -- some of whom, like choreographer John Carrafa and dance historian Suzanne Carbonneau, are major names in the national dance scene.

The creation of the major "is wonderful," said Plavin, who retired in 2005. Dance at Bates has "evolved, and this is the right time for what happened." (An April 29-May 1 reunion of Bates dance alumni will honor the lives and contributions of Plavin and her late husband, Leonard, a photographer who created a vast archive of Bates College Modern Dance Company images.)

"Dance has been a key focus for diversity," said Kirk Read, associate professor of French and chair of the Bates Arts Collaborative, a group charged with advancing the arts at the college. He cited both the festival and the academic program hosting performers and choreographers representing myriad peoples, regions and cultural traditions.